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Why this nation’s Confederate statues must be taken down

The president and others have questioned whether the tearing down of Confederate statues is rewriting history. If we tear down a statue of Robert E. Lee, then is it permissible to tear down a statue of George W

People gather for a rally Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Salt Lake City. Utah residents held a unity and anti-racism rally Monday night to denounce the messages of hate and violence of white supremacists at a weekend rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Photo: Rick Bowmer, AP)

The president and others have questioned whether the tearing down of Confederate statues is rewriting history. If we tear down a statue of Robert E. Lee, then is it permissible to tear down a statue of George Washington? So let me help those who are confused. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were founding fathers of the United States. They were instrumental in the creation of our nation. Those statues that are being targeted for demolition represent the Confederacy — a creation that came almost a century later. They represent values that we do not find to be moral and should not be celebrated. And that is the difference.

Removing these statues is not rewriting history. It is righting the values that we choose to celebrate. Charlottesville — and Trump — have proven that not all Americans have moved forward. They would hold us back. But we will move forward. We know the value of appreciating the diversity of this country. So, to answer the president, we wish to honor that diversity and not celebrate or honor those men who fought to enslave and demean human beings — human beings who are the ancestors of our fellow Americans.

Linda Levy

Farmington Hills

Stop trying to divide and conquer us

We can’t let them do this to us anymore. Whoever is behind the constant effort to divide us, regardless of their political allegiance, shouldn’t get away with this any longer. Divide and conquer is the first tactic of war and this pitting black against white, men against women, rich against poor and even students against working families, is doing just that. If we keep sliding down that slope we might lose more than just the war on words. The country is far from perfect, yet it still lets us agree to disagree and get along to work together for a common cause, and still stay the best and who the rest of the world turns to when they get in trouble. Our shoulders should be carrying shared loads, not chips.

Gary McDonald

Rochester Hills

Terrorism in both Virginia and Spain

Free Press headlines of Aug. 18 were all about the terrorist attack in Barcelona when a man drove his car into a crowd. Last week, a Nazi sympathizer in Charlottesville, Va., drove his car into a crowd in the same fashion. Why was this not named a “terrorist attack”? If the Spain event was a terror attack, then so was Charlottesville! Let’s call things what they really are: Charlottesville was a terrorist attack, and the KKK and Nazi sympathizers are terrorists, plain and simple. It’s time for our government to start treating these organizations as terror groups and prosecuting accordingly. And it’s time for all congresspeople to denounce these groups and stand together against these home-grown terrorists.

Scott Golding

Ann Arbor

Trump showed his true colors on ‘good people’

Donald Trump’s afternoon press conference last Tuesday revealed his true colors when he doubled-down on his support for the likes of David Duke and his ilk by claiming that somehow there is a moral equivalency between the white supremacists, the KKK and the neo-Nazis, and those who assembled to protest the hatemongers’ message. To suggest that there were “good people” on both sides is a travesty. “Good people” do not participate in a torch parade led by hooded Klansmen, and who shout hateful messages that hark back to Nazi Germany. “Good people” protest at their city council meeting. Anyone who watched that Friday night act of domestic terrorism and the Saturday melee that followed and eventually led to the death of an innocent woman, cannot possibly support the specious argument that there is guilt on all sides.

Beverly Castleberry

Livonia

There’s no place for such hatred in U.S.

As an Israeli born and bred, I most fortunately never experienced antisemitism on a personal level and only knew it from the books. Watching these hate-filled marchers, lit-torches in hand, repeating again and again: “Jews won’t replace us” and “blood and soil,” both remindful of Nazism, gave me the chills. I can’t believe that this is happening in America of 2017. Free speech is an integral part of a democratic country, but this is an abuse of it and should be banned. There should be no place for this sort of hatred in our country. There should be no place for racial hatred of any kind in the America of 2017.

Rachel Kapen

West Bloomfield

Flying Confederate flag is a slap in the face

While I love the fact that I live in a country that lets folks fly the Confederate battle flag in their front yard, I do question their intelligence and their sanity.

I spent 23 years as part of the bulwark against communism. My father (and all of my uncles who were old enough and all of my great-uncles who were young enough) served during World War II. The family was relatively lucky in that we only lost one (a P38 pilot). They would collectively take you to the woodshed if you flew the Japanese war flag or the Reichskriegsflagge. My great-great grandfather and both his brothers fought for the Union. While we can debate what the Civil War was really about they would feel that someone flying the “stars and bars” is a slap in their face.

H.F. Brainard

Major, USA, Retired

Ionia

Don’t infringe on freedom to speak

Freedom to speak is guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States as is freedom to assemble to protest. Freedom is what the Declaration of Independence of 1776 was fought over against tyranny of a dictatorship. I do not agree with their agenda of supremacy, but I will support their right to assemble and free speech!

Paul A. Heller

Washington Township

A week voters should remember at polls

Donald Trump’s reaction to the Charlottesville violence shames and demeans America. In these times of national division, we need a leader who stands up for traditional American values. It shouldn’t be like pulling teeth to get our president to denounce white supremacists and neo-Nazis. It shouldn’t be difficult to see the difference between those screaming racial epithets and hateful ethnic and religious slurs, and those who protest hatred. There’s no moral equivalence between the hate groups who murdered a protester, and the groups who stood against their repugnant beliefs. And finally, even though the debate has now gone far beyond statues of historical figures, we need a president who clearly sees the difference between Washington and Jefferson, who fought for the union of the American states and freedom from tyranny, and Confederate leaders who fought for division of the country and for the subjugation of fellow Americans.

Liberty-minded Republican leaders should make a strong stand against the president’s remarks, and so should Republican voters whose consciences have been shaken by these recent events.